A Tale of Love

I have a story to share. I heard it this past week while visiting with my cousin, and I thought it too beautiful to not be shared. It is a tale of true love.

I wrote of my uncle's passing in a post in March of this year. Last weekend, my cousin Kim and her daughter took me to visit his grave. We stayed at his house that evening and she told me this story.

First, you must know more about him and his wife. Lonnie and Glenda married early in life. They faced a lot of adversity, as most of us do. For them, it bound them closer together as they faced each challenge as partners and lovers, sharing the burdens in easy times as well as the hard ones.

His family culture was one of strictness and harshness. "Spare not the rod lest you spoil the child" was a credo firmly followed by my father as well as most of his siblings. Not so, my uncle. He treated his wife and children with love, gentleness and respect.

Their marriage was perhaps the best I have ever known. It was filled daily with music and laughter. One could not visit their home without being surrounded by the love that they shared.

Now, the story. Glenda was dying of cancer. She was at home. There was nothing further the hospital could do. The end was close, as foretold by Glenda's increasingly ragged breathing. Lonnie asked Kim to leave them alone. Kim protested, wanting to stay with her mother. Lonnie insisted that Kim give them these last few moments alone.

Kim left and waited in the other room.

About 15 minutes later, Lonnie called to her. Glenda's time was over.

When Kim returned to their bedroom, it was to see that Lonnie had picked his bride up and held her in his lap, her head on his shoulder, as he softly sang the songs they had sung together so often. She passed in his arms, no longer able to sing with him, but hearing him and feeling his arms around her.

I asked Kim if I could share this wonderful story of love. There is so much anger and strife in this world that we can all use a little dose of such love and tenderness. Kim graciously agreed for me to post it. So, I now share it with you all. Or, as Lonnie and Glenda would have said, "With Y'all."